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While international attention has been turned toward Gaza, violence against Palestinians has increased in the West Bank too. Israeli settler attacks have become more frequent.
Settlers are Israeli citizens who live on Palestinian land. In most cases, this happens because Palestinians are prevented from accessing their land and are physically attacked by settlers. In a third of cases, Palestinian property is damaged by settlers. These findings come from a UN report published in September 2023 that showed a years-long rise in settler violence against Palestinians. Because of these numbers, the UN has noted that “settler-driven displacement did not start with Hamas’s deadly attack”.
“Settlers attacked us, destroying our homes, water tanks, solar panels and cars,” Abu Khaled, 43, told the UN after being displaced on 28 October. “I felt the presence of death so tangibly as if I saw it with my own eyes … I made the hardest decision in my life: to leave Zanuta and leave everything behind, as memories. I did this to protect my children.” Those who remain are not safe. “They prevent us from grazing our sheep,” Mohamad Abu Seif, 90, said. He has lived with his family in Ein Shibli, a herding community, for over 40 years. They remain vulnerable to threats and harassment by settlers.
The Israeli government routinely acknowledges these colonies as part of the Israeli state despite the fact that they are illegal under international law.[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]
Article 49 of the fourth Geneva convention prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.
"The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has found that “as a rule, the military prefers to remove Palestinians from their own farmland or pastureland rather than confront settlers”. This has also been the case in recent months, when Israeli forces have accompanied or supported settler attacks in almost half of all incidents, according to the UN. In over a third of the incidents reported since October, settlers threatened Palestinians with firearms, including by opening fire."
"The thousands of Palestinians who have been forced from their homes have
little recourse to justice. In four out of every five cases, Israeli
police failed in the investigation of Israelis who harmed Palestinians
and their property. This finding comes from Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group that has investigated
the way Israeli law enforcement treats these settler attacks. It found
that between 2005 and 2021, just 3% of ideologically motivated cases
resulted in a conviction."
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